Holy Week Long Run

I was supposed to run 10k last weekend as part of my mileage buildup. Due to wedding anniversary reasons, of course, I had to drop all my weekend running plans. No biggie, as I just swapped this week (cut-back mileage week) with last week. Thus, for this week my target is to complete 25km total.

So far I ran an easy 7km (easing back with the Bikilas) last Monday. That leaves me with a balance of 18km. A 6km tempo is planned tomorrow morning (Thu) and then 12km easy on the weekend (probably on Sat).

The (good) problem now is that my mind is tempting me to run longer on the weekend (probably 16km) since it's Holy Week. It's that time of the year when Metro Manila's streets are car/pollution-free for most of the day ---definitely every (addicted) runner's dream. It's like those "buy 1, take 1" promos that comes every now and then. Definitely the "run 12k, why not run 4k more" bait is luring my mind in.

Hmmm, let's see what happens on the weekend.

How about you? Where and how long is your run this weekend?

Run-blog, will ya?

I keep a blog roll on this site to read about other runners' experiences on, well, running (what else?). I have to be honest that, similar to SheerWill's previous post, I'm missing such inspiring/noteable posts such as those from Gleeman and WMTan.

Nowadays I mostly see blogposts containing ads for upcoming races (which I don't mind as long as the running blogs don't end up like the back pages of a Runner's World magazine wherein race ads are lumped next to each other ---or like your Sunday newspaper classified ads section. Haha!). I guess it's an additional channel that race organizers have found to advertise their races to the public. The blog wins too, in the form of increased visitors.

Unfortunately, I am left wanting, hoping to read more of the running experience itself.

Get out of this writer's block and start run-blogging again, ok? :)

(Wala lang)

Goldilocks 21k: Registered!

Yup, I've just registered today for the Goldilocks 21km Fun Run on May 15. That gives me a little over 4 weeks to train. The farthest I've run after Condura was 11km (last Sunday's Baguio race) so I got a lot of catching up to do on my weekend long runs (probably a 16 and 18 km before tapering should be enough).

BAZUSPORTS

Now this is interesting. Just now I got an email confirmation from Bazusports about my registration, including a confirmation code for accessing my profile on the Bazusports website. It has all the info that I've written on the reg form. The nice part is that I get to enable the connection of my FB and Twitter profiles so that my friends/followers would know my race status real time(?).

Let's see if that works on raceday. :)

TEMPTING

The racebib comes with discount tabs for Planet Sports and The Athlete's Foot (20%) and Toby's and RUNNR (10%). Suffice to say that I've been browsing shoe reviews on the 'net all afternoon. It's really a test of self-control. Hopefully I won't give in. O:-)

BACK IN TRAINING

I've been logging 20-23km weeks for the past 3 weeks, with this week's aim at 25km. My right foot is still a little hurt from that "too long, too soon" Bikila run 4 weeks ago so I'm still refraining from using it, alternating between my trusty Adios and Newtons. Maybe after 2 weeks of abstaining from my Bikilas should heal the foot completely.

You really gotta love RunRio. As early as now, the race map is already on their website. It seems that I'll be running over the Kalayaan flyover again. I got beaten by it last Condura, thus I need to settle the score.

See you on May 15!

Baguio21k.com 10k: Oh YES, I felt the hill!

There's always that extra "umph!" whenever one races in Baguio. The biting cold air, the thin amount of oxygen, the steep hills, and, oh yes, the combination of all three as you run. Running in McKinley Hill, Bayani Road, or the Kalayaan flyover is peanuts compared to the hills of Baguio city. I experienced it all when I ran the Botak Baguio 10k last year. It was a sadistic run that no one should dare repeat. It should've been off my bucket list in search for other places to conquer. Baguio mornings should be spent under the sheets, with your head on a fluffy pillow, dozing off while your thoughts are of Star Cafe, 50s Diner, and Good Shepherd's signature ube jam.

Yet there I was again on a Sunday morning at Burnham Park, braving 16-degree Celsius of cold, minutes before the 5:45am 10k gun start, challenging myself to do better than my 1:09 last year. It begs to answer the question, "You idiot, why are you doing this again?"

The 21k runners, which formed about 80% of the attendees, were sent off 5:30am as scheduled, with the announcer sounding like a cross between Jimmy Santos and your typical Barangay fiesta BINGO announcer ("esfehyshal!"). Yes, that is typical of a Baguio race. No rented DJ announcer, no giant video screens, no one to lead the runners in the warm up exercises ("Oh! Mag-istretching naman kayow!"), and certainly no fireworks at gun start. The lure of the P500.00 reg fee is entirely on the venue: B-A-G-U-I-O. Just a racebib would suffice as the racekit itself. The personalized racebib (first of its kind in our country, I think), the head/ear warmer, the printed design on the RF tag, and the singlet are just bonuses, IMHO, to what's really in store for the registrants of this true blue small town race. I really have to say that the personalized racebib was a big "two thumbs up!" to the organizers as it made every runner have that elite runner feel, typical of how we see in big races abroad (Haile, Ryan, Meb, and Paula will all agree).

with DagulRunner waiting for the start

My plan for this 10k race was simple: beat 1:09 from last year. There was no way in hell that I'll make a sub-60 performance here (not for now, at least). Nutrition was to take a Powerbar gel before km5. Attack the uphills and run fast on the downhills. And finally, don't forget to breathe as oxygen will be sparse.

I think the only flat part of the route was the first and last 400 meters: Burnham Park. The rest was a gruesome mix of downhill-downhill-uphill-downhill-uphiiiiiiiill-uphiiiiiiiiill-na-naman-tama-na-ayaw-ko-na-uphiiiiiiill-downhill-uphill-last-na-talaga-downhill. My 305 measured the whole out-and-back route as 10.97km, or almost a kilometer more than expected. I crossed the finish at 1:12 and change, with my 305 clocking 10km at 1:06 ---a 3minute improvement from last year.

Thanks Cathy Daza for the pics!

I'm happy with the result, both my 10k time and the 11k distance. The latter because my planned mileage for that day was 11k. Plus the 800m warmup I did prior to the race, I think that I did pretty well on the mileage part. The 1:06 10k time was fairly good as well, a decent finish compared to last year but definitely something to improve on for next year(?).

Yes, there will be another Baguio 10k race for me next year.

And yes, I'm already thinking of joining the RunRio Baguio 21k event on December THIS YEAR.

It's a love-hate relationship between me and them damn hills.

Tinkering with dailymile.com

I've started logging my runs in dailymile.com late last month. I've been a member sometime back, but it was only last month that I've started to log religiously into it.

Prior to DM, I was using trusty Excel as my tool for logging my runs. It actually proved successful in monitoring my training for last Feb's Condura42k, employing a Frankensteined mix of plans from Runnersworld (for the weekly mileage target), reading RUN by Matt Fitzgerald, and alternating a twice a week hard run method (1 speedwork and 1 long run). The plan came up on the fly every week, so there was nothing fancy there. But logging the run itself was a good approach in determining how effective (or not) it was.

DM has the same logging mechanism: how much mileage/time you ran, where, and how you felt. There's also a description line if you want to add one. What's more is that your friends can add a comment/motivation to your run/training, similar to how FB allows you to comment on one another's status. Plus there's a donut and cheezeburger meter as seen above.

Well I only have 6 friends right now, so I hope those of you already in DM can add me up. The runs you log will definitely motivate me to do my part too. If you're not yet in DM, do sign up and add me. Click here for my DM userid.

Just don't cross-post your DM logged-runs in FB. Your non-runner friends might get irritated. ;-)